Rubber finger probes sense of touch

By Max Glaskin

What is it about a cat’s fur that makes us want to stroke it, and how do you create a rubbery grip that you just can’t resist squeezing? An artificial finger that can gauge a raft of tactile characteristics for materials should help to find out.

Cathy Barnes and colleagues at the University of Leeds, UK, are building the life-size silicone rubber finger. To get the measure of how rough or smooth a material is, they place a sample on a pressure-sensitive platform and allow an attached motor to “stroke” the finger across it. Software then compares the sideways pressure that the platform feels with the sideways force applied to the finger. This gives a reading for friction or roughness.

At the same time, the software gauges how much downwards force the material absorbs by comparing the force applied by the finger with the force felt by the platform.

To continue reading this premium article, subscribe for unlimited access.